Game board and cards adapted to be utilized therewith



Nov. 28, 1950 CK OARD AND CARDS ADAPTED TO BE UTILIZED THEREWITH W. A. HEACO Filed Oct. 2, 1945 GAME B WOODROW A.HEACOCK,

INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 28, 1950 UNITED STATES Eur o-F-FicE GAMJE BOARD AND CARDS ADAPTEDTOBE "UTILIZED THEBEWITH 3 IClaims. i

My invention relates 'to' games and "game boards, and has particular reference to a novel gameto be playedwith playing'piecesmovable along prescribed paths over a game board divided into a-plurality of playing'areas.

It is an object of my invention toprovidea --'game of simple construction which may be played by three or more players moving playing "pieces over a prescribed course on a field of play on'a game board which is divided into a plurality "of-playing areas.

Another obiect of my invention 'is to providea *game "of the character described, wherein the playing pieces are constructed of two or more ddifferent' sizes to denote different valuations of the playing pieces, anddenot-ing the possible extent'of movement permitted the pieces of'dif- A fer-exit valuation.

:Another object-of my inventionis toprovide a game board which may be constructed of sheet 'wmateri-al inthe"dorm of a plurality of sheet sections of relatively small area hingedly connected "toeach other to permit unfolding-of the board into aiplaying' field of relatively large area, and to:spermitrthe folding of theboard into a subrastantially flatcompact package of lesser area for storage and transportation purposes.

[Another object or" my invention is to provide in combinatiomwi-th the playing field and pieces set forth in the preceding paragraphs, a plurality of cards divided into sets or groups of four cards each, each of the sets or groups being designated by a numeral denoting the group or set, while on the reverse side of such cards appears indicialde- ,nctingthelarea of the game board toawhich a iplayer' receiving the card will direct the ,move' ment of'his playing pieces.

Other ob ects of my inventionwill beapparent t'fromtheistu'dy of the following specifications read in connection with the accompanying draw- "ings whereinz Fig; 1- is a perspective view of. a game; board defininga playing field and having locatedthereon a'pluralitv *of' sets of playing pieces .arranged 'on' theboard-in the initial starting positions, of the pieces-of all-ofthe players;

Figz' Z isa perspective view of the game board shown in Figi. liiillustrating the manner in which thegarne board is divided into, a pluralitybf rela- .tively,..small area sections hinged together for folding; and

Fig. 3 is a view of a plurality of the cards which may be employed in playing the game shown in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, I have illustrated 2 iiniLFie...1. aeame.board which may h Q 1 structed of any suitable sheet material such as cardboard, wood, orthe' like, the board being divided into a p u al ty of .c nticu us Ou l ned 5 areassuch as'indicate'd at Z, certain of thead- 'jacent areas adiacent'thecenter of the board being designated by letters or other indicia ,3;as an objective area o zo toward wh o r avine p s 4, nd, 5. ar ube .m vedjdurin the. la n of. the game.

The centra obiec iv ar a rlenot te rito lt be o upied y p i ap ece ia the s m p ;eres e wh l theme-v ne. ieces te 5 r p e erably divided into four groups, eaeh group contam n --a lura i y o ..,sma 11.. ized i l ece v 4 an two or more larger sized pieces 5. Each of the groups of playing pieces are distinguished from :each other either by distinguishing coloring or by mar in or, e ind c a e r ns u on. each of the playing pieces.

At the start of the game each player arranges the playing piecesofthe group of his selection, in ith o term square .2 .of the am b a ad acent to the position of the player.

'One of the players, then cuts the cards. The number .of the card selected will designate. the

set or group p1 fourcards to be used in the play of ."the game, and the cardsof that set are then dealt to each of the players.

' In view ,of ,the, fact. that each setor group of fcurcards bearing the same. numeral wiil' ,cqntain two. cards uearineone lde snationvan two .othencards h arin an th on n ',,tion. the dealin of the cardsautomatically pairs ,,up two, of.v the playersas alteam Whose objective is the same zone asdesignated by one pair of the ,rcards inthe grouowhile .the nther twoplayers ,areiteamed. up withancbjective of another of ythezonesas ,designated by the two remaining 4 cardsrof the set.

The player to the left of the dealer then; starts the play by moving one of the game, piecestovward the objectiverdesignated by-the card dealt torhimg itnbeing understood that-each of the players keeps confidential the information as :to Lathe-objective zone toward which: he is' to -move .hisplaying pieces so thatneither his partnernor the other two enemy players know what-zone istheobjective of the first: player.

lt will -be recalled that the playing pieces' 4 were of smaller dimensions than the playing pieces 5, so as to distinguish these pieces from, each other, the playing pieces 4 having prescribed courses of travel or distances of travel upon each play different from those ascribed to the playing pieces 5.

For example, the playing pieces 4 may move either forwardly or backwardly from one square to another, or sidewise in either direction from one square to another, or the pieces may move diagonally in any direction from one square to another, but the small pieces. 4 are permitted to move a distance of only one square upon each play. The larger pieces 5 may move either forwardly, rearwardly, sidewise in either direction, or diagonally in any direction, and may move through any number of squares at a time, provided the path is not obstructed by the location of another playing piece in one of the squares through which it is desired to traverse the piece.

Various rules for the capture of an opponents piece may be prescribed. For example, one player moving a playing piece into a square occupied by an opponents playing piece, may be said to capture the opponents playing piece, and in such instance, the smaller or minor pieces might be permitted to capture only minor pieces belonging to an opponent, while major pieces or larger playing pieces may be permitted to capture either major or minor pieces belonging to an opponent.

Since, by reason of the dealing of the cards each player is unaware as to which other player is his team mate and which of the other players is his opponent, the arrival of two pieces belonging to different players in a given zone, may require the player of the last piece to so arrive, to declare whether or not the player of the other piece is his partner. If the guessing player guesses correctly, that team wins the game, while if the guess is wrong, the play continues until the objective zone for one team is occupied by four of the teams playing pieces; or, in the event the total number of playing pieces remaining to the partners of a single team is less than four, then occupancy of the objective zone by a greater number of playing pieces than are located in the objective zone of the opposing team, may be construed as capture of the objective zone and the winning of the game.

To permit a relatively large playing field to be used, I prefer to make the playing field of a plurality of rectangular section la 11), 1c and 1d hinged together in such fashion as to permit the ready folding of the sections upon each other to comprise a compact, flat package of substantially small area. For example, the sections la and 1d ma be hinged together, while the sections 1b and 1c are hinged together, and the two sets of hinged sections may be joined by means of a hinge interconnecting the sections 1a and 11).

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, I do not desire to be limited to any of the details illustrated or described herein except as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a game, the combination of a playing field divided into a plurality of contiguous outlined areas including at the center of the playing field a plurality of adjacent ones of said areas defining a plurality of adjacent objective zones, each zone including more than one of said areas and bearing a symbol differentiating said zone from adjacent objective zones, a plurality of sets of playing pieces, one for each player adapted to be moved over the playing field toward an objective zone assigned to a player, and four cards, two of which bear on their faces a symbol corresponding to a symbol on one of said zones and two of which bear on their faces a symbol corresponding to a symbol on another of said zones, for designating to each player the objective zone toward which his playing pieces must move, and for pairing players as partners whose pieces are to be directed toward the same zone.

2. In a game, the combination of a playing field divided into a plurality of contiguous outlined areas including at the center of the playing field a plurality of adjacent ones of said areas defining four adjacent objective zones, each zone including more than one of said areas and bearing a symbol differentiating said zone from adjacent objective zones; a plurality of sets of playing pieces, one for each player adapted to be moved over the playing field toward an objective zone assigned to a player and each set containing more pieces than there are areas in a zone; and four cards adapted to be dealt to the players, two of which bear on their faces a symbol corresponding to a symbol on one of said zones and two of which bear upon their faces a symbol corresponding to a symbol upon another of said zones which designate to each player the objective zone toward which his playing pieces must move, said symbols corresponding to the symbols of two of the four zones to set up opposed objective areas.

3. In combination with a playing area having a plurality of objective zones each of which bears a symbol differentiating it from adjacent zones, a device for choosing partners secretly comprising a deck of cards arranged in sets differentiated from each other by indicia on the backs thereof and the cards of each set having symbols on the faces thereof correlated with the symbols of the objective zones, characterized by each set being correlated to at least two different objective zones, whereby partners are selected among more than two players by the distribution of the cards of one set to the players.

WOODROW A. HEACOCK.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Num er Name Date 463,602 Hamilton Nov. 17, 1891 511,773 Higgins Jan. 2, 1894 630,787 Watson Aug. 8, 1899 1,056,526 Fortman Mar. 18, 1913 1,134,922 Smith Apr. 6, 1915 1,145,230 Culp July 6, 1915 1,475,734 Anthon Nov. 27, 1923 1,564,746 Barnard Dec. 8, 1925 1,628,412 Lesavoy May 12, 1927 1,745,373 Landsberger Feb. 4, 1930 2,045,339 Boland June 23, 1936 2,147,900 Houseknccht Feb. 21, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 397,996 Germany July 11, 1924 

